Web supply reel for printing presses



1954 F. N. PALMATI R WEB SUPPLY REEL FOR PRINTING PRE SSES Filed May 3, 1952 m. a Z M o H a 8\ w W 30 4 1 4m a a m a f E f 2 m HE Q m vsm-ro rance-Lu alm W Q TQRNE:

Patented Feb. 9, 1954 WEB SUPPLY REEL FOR PRINTING PRESSES Francois N. Palmatier, Arlington Heights, Ill., as-

signor to The Goss Printing Press Company, Chicago, 111., a corporation of Illinois Application May 3, 1952, Serial No. 285,876

Claims.

This invention relates to printing presses and more particularly to web supply reels of the type adapted to support a plurality of web rolls in angularly spaced relationship around a central shaft.

In conventional reels of this type the opposite ends of the rolls are supported by rigid spiders which are secured directly to the shaft. In order to rotate the shaft and thus bring a succession of web rolls into feeding position, the shaft is provided with suitable driving means which usually includes a. gear mounted on one end of the shaft. This gear serves not only as a driving element to effect slow speed rotation of the shaft, but also as a reaction element to prevent rotation of the shaft due to the weight of the web rolls and the pull of the web.

During the operation of a conventional web supply reel of the foregoing character, torsional stresses are set up in the central reel shaft due to the pull of the web, and also tochanging gravitational forces as the web rolls are successively expended and as fresh rolls are loaded on the reel. Since the reel shaft is anchored at only one end, the torsional stresses cause skewing of the web rolls due to the torsional elasticity.

of the reel shaft. In other words the spider remote from the drive gear is subject to greater torsional deflection than the other spider, because the long portion of the shaft between the outer spider and the gear is more compliant in torsion than the short portion between the inner spider and the gear. This skewing of the web rolls is a. serious matter because it tends to cause frequent web breaks.

It is an object of this invention to provide a web supply reel in which skewing of the web rolls is completely eliminated even when web rolls of various widths are utilized, and the rolls are positioned at various points along the reel shaft. A more specific object is to provide a web reel having skew preventing means which is readily adjustable to accommodate web rolls of all the usual widths in all of the usual positions.

A further object is to provide a web supply reel having means afiording support of equal torsional compliance for the opposite ends of the web rolls.

Another invention having similar objects is disclosed and claimed in a copending application of Henry L. McWhorter, Serial No. 285,921, filed May 3, 1952, which is a continuation-in-part of a copending application by the same inventor, Serial No. 222,136, filed April 20, 1951, now abandoned. 7

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will appear from the following description, taken with the accompanying drawing in which:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of an illustrative web supply reel, constructed'in accordance with the invention.

Fig. 2 is a horizontal section of the reel taken generally along the line 22 in Fig. l, the reel being adjusted to support full width rolls.

Fig. 3 is a partly sectional plan View showing the reel adjusted to hold half-width rolls.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged transverse section taken along the line 44 of Fig. 3.

While the invention is susceptible of various modifications and alternative constructions, there-is shown in the drawing and will herein be described in detail the preferred embodiment, but it is to be understood that it is not thereby intended to limit the invention to the form disclosed, but it is intended to cover all modifications and alternative constructions falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as expressed in the appended claims.

Considered now in greater detail, the drawings illustrate an exemplary embodiment of the invention in the form of a web reel l0 (Fig. 1) of the type adapted to support a plurality of web rolls l2 on stub shafts or spindles l4 clustered around a. central shaft l6. As illustrated, the latter is rotatably supported near its opposite ends by a pair of frame elements 18 (Figs. 2 and 3). To rotate the shaft [6 and thus bring the web rolls successively into feeding position, there is provided on one end of the shaft a suitable driving element, comprising a gear 20 in this instance,

Support of equal compliance in torsion is provided for the opposite ends of the rolls [2 by means including a pair of spiders 22 which in this case have three radial arms 24 andthus are adapted to support three sets of roll spindles. The spiders are mounted on a sleeve '26 which itself is mounted on the shaft I6. To secure the spiders to the sleeve, the latter is provided with a key 28 (Fig. 4) received in keyways 30 in the spiders. Each of the latter has a pair of set screws 32 engageable with the sides of the key. The width of the keyways preferably is slightly greater than the width of the key so that the angular position of the spiders may be adjusted over a small range by manipulating the set screws. The sleeve is keyed to the shaft by a removable pin 34 which is always positioned midway between the spiders 22 so that the sleeve 1 will provide equally compliant support for the latter.

In the illustrative embodiment, the pin may be located in any one of seven sets of aligned apertures 36 and 38 which extend diametrically through the shaft and the sleeve respectively. One of the sets of apertures is positioned at the midpoint of the sleeve and the others are spaced in opposite directions from the midpoint at intervals equal to one-eighth of the width of a standard newsprint roll. In this way, the pin 34 may be adjusted to a point midway between the spiders when the latter are positioned to accommodate full width, three-quarter width, one-half width, or quarter width rolls at any of the usual positions along the reel shaft.

When the reel is adjusted to hold full width rolls, as shown in Fig. 1, the pin is located in the central set of apertures (the fourth set from the gear 26). This location of the pin is also employed for half-width rolls on center. For half-width rolls positioned to the extreme right, as shown in Fig. 3, the pin is moved to the second set of apertures 36 and 38, counting from the gear. The following table gives the location of the pin for various roll setups.

Set of Aper- Roll Setup tures Occupied by Pin Full width Fourth. Three-quarter width to right Third. Three-quarter width to left. Fifth. Half width on center Fourth. Half width to extreme right. Second. Half width to extreme left S xth. Quarter Width at extreme right First. Q uarter width at right-center. Third. G uarter width at left-center.-. Fifth. Q uarter width at extreme left Seventh.

Actually, a table of this sort is not needed in practice, since it is merely necessary to key the sleeve to the shaft at the midpoint of the roll.

In the operation of the reel, the web is unrolled from the web roll which is in the right hand position in Fig. 1. Another roll, in the upper position as seen in Fig. 1, is held in reserve and when the right hand roll is nearly expended, the shaft 16 is rotated clockwise to bring the upper roll into proximity with the traveling web so that a paster can be effected. The clockwise movement of the reel continues until the expended roll reaches the left hand position, shown in Fig. 1, whereupon a fresh roll is loaded on the reel. Thus the roll spindles are subjected to changing loads which give rise to variations in the torque applied to the spiders 22. However, in all cases, equal amounts of torque are applied to both spiders, Moreover, the portions of the sleeve 26 between the respective spiders and the pin 35, being equal in length, afford equal torsional compliance. For these reasons both spiders are subject to the same torsional defiection under the changing loads imposed by the weight of the web rolls and the pull of the web. The deflection angle, exaggerated somewhat for clarity of illustration, is shown at 46 in Fig. 1. It should be noted that the portion of the shaft between the pin 35 and the gear 20 is twisted by the torque applied to the spiders, as shown by a twist angle 42 in Fig. 2. However, this twisting is manifested equally at the two spiders, since both are connected to the same point on the shaft.

To change the adjustment of the reel it is necessary merely to loosen one of the set screws keying the sleeve to the shaft at a point midway on one or both of the spiders, slide the spiders along the sleeve to the desired positions, and relocate the pin 34 in the appropriate set of apertures 35 and 38 so that the pin is centrally located with respect to the spiders.

I claim as my invention:

1. A web supply reel for a printing press comprising, in combination, a horizontal shaft sup ported for rotation, means including a gear on one end of the shaft for rotating the same, a sleeve mounted on the shaft, a pair of spindle supports releasably secured to the sleeve, a plurality of horizontal roll spindle elements clustered around the shaft in radially spaced relation thereto and supported on the spindle supports, and means for securing the sleeve to the shaft at a point midway between the spindle supports so as to equalize the torsional deflection of the spindle supports when the reel is loaded with paper rolls and subjected to the pull of the web.

2. A reel for a printing press comprising, in combination, a horizontal shaft supported for rotation, means including a gear on one end of the shaft for effecting controlled rotation of the same, an elongated sleeve mounted on the shaft,

a pair of spindle supporting spiders spaced along the sleeve, clamping means for releasably secur ing the spiders to the sleeve, a plurality of horizontal roll spindles supported by the spiders in equally spaced relationship, and means including a removable pin extending transversely through the shaft and the sleeve for keying the sleeve to the shaft at a point midway between the spiders so that both ends of the spindles are mounted with equal torsional elasticity.

3. A reel for a printing press comprising, in

combination, a horizontal shaft supported for adjacent one end thereof for effecting controlled rotation thereof, a sleeve mounted on the shaft, a pair of roll supports secured to the sleeve, a

plurality of horizontal roll center supporting elements clustered around the shaft in radiallyspaced relation thereto and supported on the roll supports for rotatably supporting the web rolls, and means for securing the sleeve to the shaft at a point midway between the roll supports so as to equalize the torsional deflection of the roll supports when the reel is loaded with web rolls and subjected to the pull of the Web.

5. A web supply reel for supporting a plurality of web rolls for a printing press, comprising, in combination, a horizontal shaft supported for rotation, indexing means connected to said shaft adjacent one end thereof for effecting controlled.

rotation thereof, a sleeve mounted on said shaft, a pair of roll supports connected to said sleeve 5 for rotation therewith and slidable therealong to accommodate rolls of various widths in various positions, a plurality of horizontal roll center supporting elements clustered around said shaft in radially spaced relation thereto and mounted on said roll supports for rotatably supporting the web rolls, and a key element between said sleeve and said shaft shiftable longitudinally thereon for central location between said roll supports so as to equalize the torsional deflection of said roll supports when the reel is loaded with web rolls and subjected to the pull of the web.

FRANCOIS N. PALMA'IIER.

Number Name Date Keeney et a1. July 18, 1933 Lessmann Jan. 25, 1944 

